Bundesgeschäftsstelle Langemarckstr. 210 28199 Bremen Tel.: 0421 / 598 28 8 Fax.: 0421 / 598 28 72

Pressestelle Nernstweg 32 22765 Hamburg Tel.: 040 / 380 892 0 Fax.: 040 / 380 892 14

Benediktbeuern and Hamburg, 22/05/03 Resorts: Environment/International News Business at the cost of tropical rainforests International environmental organisations exert increasing pressure on the German company Papier Union More than a dozen environmental organisations from Europe, Indonesia and Brazil, amongst them ROBIN WOOD, BUND, The Rainforest Foundation and Telapak, have asked the leading paper wholesaler in Germany, Papier Union, to stop dealing in products which are made of fibre sourced from endangered forest areas. In particular, Papier Union has been asked to cease dealing with the combine APRIL, since APRIL is largely responsible for the destruction of rainforests on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. The participants of the international congress of Forest Movement Europe, who met in Bendiktbeuern near Munich, Germany, this week, signed a letter to Papier Union's CEO on the above issue. In the preceding months, on-going protest actions as well as a flood of emails and postcards had also opposed the business between Papier Union and APRIL and the illegal logging of rainforests. APRIL maintains one of the largest fibre factories worldwide on Sumatra. 75% of resources processed by APRIL are still being gained from native forests. From the start of its production until today the combine would have destroyed at least 220,000 ha of rainforest. APRIL intends to keep plundering native forests until 2008 in order to transform the area into plantations. According to the World Bank all substantial areas of lowland rainforests on Sumatra will be destroyed by as early as 2005 - with fatal consequences for huge numbers of people, who will be deprived of their livelihood. Unique flora and fauna will be lost for ever. Natural catastrophes such as floods and landslides will occur more and more frequently. The activists' letter to Papier Union's CEO Arndt Klippgen states: " In order to pursue a credible ecologically and socially acceptable buying policy PAPIER UNION would need to cease business with APRIL until the conditions to protect Sumatra's last remaining rainforests are being fulfilled by the combine." The undersigned demand the areas controlled by APRIL and partners to be monitored by an independent body and ask for all ecologically valuable zones to be excluded from commercial usage. Papier Union is generally requested not to deal in paper products made of fibre sourced from endangered forest areas and to increase its percentage of recycled paper in its range of paper products. Other companies have already recognised that it is time to change their policy. A year ago, protest actions by ROBIN WOOD led to Karstadt's end to purchasing paper by the combine APP (Asia Pulp and Paper), which also destroys large areas of Indonesian rainforest. Early this year, the chain of department stores Kloppenburg and the German postal service Deutsche Post informed ROBIN WOOD that given the circumstances they would no longer stock APRIL products. Contact: Jens Wieting, ROBIN WOOD Expert on Tropical Rainforests, 0049 (0)171 / 835 95 15 (in Benediktbeuern), tropenwald@robinwood.de Ute Bertrand, ROBIN WOOD Press Officer, 0049 (0)40-380 892 22, presse@robinwood.de You can access further information on paper sourced from overexploitation of native forests on our website: http://www.robinwood.de/urwaldpapier The Open Letter This Press Release in german.